Fault detection

Over the last few years, artificial intelligence techniques have pervaded almost all aspects of process systems engineering. Rapid changes in hardware and software technology have continued to propel the use of artificial intelligence techniques in process systems. Applications and techniques where more than one underlying method is used are becoming more and more popular. In the chemical process industries it is use d as fault diagnosis. Chemical systems are characterized by high nonlinearity, coupled interactions, large sizes, high damage potential due to process hazards, and discrete (batch) as well as continuous nature of operations. Process fault detection is the problem of real-time identification of the malfunctions in a process given current sensor data and some a priori knowledge about the process behavior under normal and abnormal situations. To detect the occurrence of a fault, a model of the normal process behavior is needed. The current process behavior is compared with the normal process behavior. Basically having a model of the process helps in finding deviations from model predictions which could be due to a fault. These models could be based: 1. First principles which solve Mass and Energy balances for process equipment. These then generate algebraic equations or differential equations that are solved to get model predictions. 2. Empirical Models that are developed by using data from the process to model and develop relationship between the variables. These could range from simple curve fits and regression models to complex state space models or Neural Net Models. The disadvantage of empirical models is that they are limited based on the range of data used to develop them.

Inputs Process Model

Outputs

Predictions

When there is a fault in the process, its output differs with model output. This difference is termed as residual. By simply monitoring the residuals one can say that something is going wrong. But it is not possible to identify the location of the fault.